TMNT Deception
by Shiane Ventures
Summary: Lisa, Liz, Cathy, and Mary hardly know each other save Lisa and Liz. They're competitors in a tournament, and meeting your competitors is normal, right? Not today. Next thing they know, they're supposedly mutated and hunted for sport by some guys called the Turtles. The Foot has 'taken care' of them, but can they really trust the Shredder and Karai? Disclaimer on TMNT.
1. The Lost Fight

TMNT Girls

**Prologue**

I'm Lisa. I train at New York City's _Ninjutsu Dragon_with my twin sister, as I have been for years. A few years after we started training here, I began to appreciate the patience, skill, and, well, patience it takes to teach three-year-olds the complicated art of ninjutsu (especially me and my sister), and since then I've wanted to become a sensei myself. I train with the _hoko__(1)_, until recently. Our normal sensei is taking a two year long trip to Europe and in his stead, a rookie sensei entered. He isn't bad at ninjutsu; actually he's pretty good. But changing our weapons claiming that we needed to be more 'diverse' really put a damper on him. He changed mine to the _katana blades__(2)__, _of all things. When he said diverse, he meant _diverse_. I'm almost positive that I'm going to embarrass myself majorly during training. Meanwhile, my twin is struggling with a problem of her own; how the heck is supposed to get her new weapons into parties? As silly as she is, sometimes I wish I could be more like her.

My name's Mary. I'm a straight A student, member of the reigning Battle of the Books team, as well as Odyssey of the Mind and the second Mathletes team. Oh yeah, I'm a second degree red belt in ninjutsu, *this* close to black, training at New Jersey's _Champion's Dojo _since I could remember. I've also been paying for my own training for a while now, and yet despite all of that, my mom wants to take me out of ninja training so I have more time for Mathletes, Battle of the Books, and Odyssey of the Mind meets and competitions. I'm honestly not trying to brag or anything, but I think I got school down. My sensei has been so far successful in convincing her to let me stay, but now that's he's been relocated to a different dojo in the chain, I am, for once, clueless on how to fix this. I explained my problem to the new sensei, and she said that changing my weapon might work. She's going to change everyone's weapon anyway so we can have a wider range of study. It'll probably work, but what is she going to change my weapon to? The bo-staff, of all things. I definitely liked my double _kama__(3)_ better. Wish me luck New Jersey!

Hi! My name's Elizabeth, but my friends call me Liz. I've been going to _Ninjutsu Dragon_ for a while, and you already heard about the sensei switch-up. Sensei whoever changed my _fukedake__(4) _and _fuki-ya__(5) _with _butterfly swords__(6)_ to the _nun chucks__(7)_, as if he wanted to make my weapon as bulky as possible. I realize that darts and knives aren't normal weapons of choice, but after I mastered them, they really were the best choice for me, but the new guy thought otherwise_._ Too bad for me, my darts and knives were easily smuggled into parties ;). My sister, Lisa the leader, says that my reason is silly, but hers isn't so great either. She's so good at ninja, that she can do it blind-folded, no joke. Well, either way, it'll still take me forever to get the nun chucks mastered.

Catherine. I go to the _Ninja's Shadow _in Manhattan, or at least, I do if I can convince my mom that I do NOT have anger issues. She thinks that I have some major temper and martial arts will get in the way of my counseling appointments. I can't believe she even thinks I have issues, especially ones so bad that I even _need_ counseling! This is exactly what makes me mad. The new sensei isn't helping either. My old one retired, and the dojo hired a new one, and with him new 'possibilities'. By that they mean, 'He's going to completely change the lessons and your weapons! Aren't you lucky?' I guess I wouldn't be so reluctant if I didn't hate him. One day I came in for training and he told me that I would no longer be using the _chigiriki__(8)_that I have been using throughout my training. No, I get the twin _sai_(9). Jerk. It'll take me forever and a day to get the hang of these things. And they're so tiny!

**Part 1; Beginnings (Mary's POV) **

I walk off of the training mat and towards Master Lea. She called Jake and me from our Wednesday training, but she didn't mention why. It's fourteenth of March, only three days from St. Patrick's Day, and everyone already looks like leprechauns. Jake appeared last year a little before Master Lea, and though he's not the nicest guy on the planet, his brother Bruce is worse. He almost monthly comes in for training with a black eye from some street fight, and takes pride in his giant purple dragon tattoo twisting from his shoulder to his hand. He must be in a gang or something.

When Master Lea notices us coming, she turns, nods, and walks toward us. We bow.

"You asked for us, sensei?" I ask.

"Yes. You two have been nominated for this year's tournament. Congratulations." She says bluntly and quickly, as if to get it over with. But who cares how emotionless she sounds? I've finally been nominated! After all these years…I don't expect Jake to be too excited, though. He was nominated last year, and said that winning was _so_ _boring_. Boys will be boys, I guess. I try to conceal most of my excitement, probably missing my mark entirely.

"Hai, sensei. Thank you sensei." I reply, trying and failing to be blunt.

"When does the competition start? I need to know what days not to make movie plans on." Jake inquires. Don't be fooled; he doesn't give a sherkin for this competition. Master Lea nods.

"The competition is on the twenty-first of May. Also, you will meet your competitors unarmed tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. We're going to a New York dojo called the _Ninjutsu Dragon._ Wear your dojo shirts." She informs us. Hold up, _tomorrow_?

"Hai, sensei. May I ask you a question?" I ask. She nods. "Why are we doing this on such short notice?" Master Lea looks at me. After a short pause she says:

"My computer crashed. I couldn't check my e-mail until today, when I found out about the meeting." I nod in response. She seemed almost surprised, and it took her a minute to remember her story. But wouldn't she have expected me to ask?

"Why are we going unarmed? We didn't have to last year." Jake speaks up.

"It's a new trust custom." She replies, unwavering. He nods. She motions toward the mat.

"Go back to your training. You should practice as much as possible before the tournament. You have no idea how hard this year's tournament can be." Master Lea tells us. I barely register her fleeting smirk. We bow and head back to training. I'm crazy excited. After so many years of training, I had finally made it to a tournament! Ever since I started I had wanted to be good enough to make it. Oh, the day has finally come! Even if I am six-teen now, it takes a little bit of time to get good, especially with a weapon change.

Its 6:45 and everyone's here. I'm in my gray 'Champion's Dojo' shirt and denim shorts. Jake's got the same shirt, and he looks about as bored as possible. I ignore him. Master Lea has her still gray 'Champion's Dojo; Sensei' shirt and yoga pants. She tells my mom that the time we return will vary depending on traffic and how well the meeting goes. Though personally, I think that it should only take about two hours and a half at the most. Possibly three. It really shouldn't take too long. Master Lea hustles everyone into the van. Wait a minute, the van? Why don't we use the company car? This van can hold up to twenty people.

"Uh…Master Lea? Why don't we take the car? The van uses more gas." I look quizzically at Lea.

"The car is _out_ of gas." She replies and revs the engine. Sputter, sputter, sputter.

"Oh."

She revs the engine again. Soon the familiar whir of the engine comes. Traffic isn't too bad; the ride takes about thirty minutes. The _Ninjutsu Dragon _is a pretty nice dojo. It looks like they have about fifteen trophies, and those are only the ones on display. We bow, and the Dragon girl's sensei makes a short speech that I pay very little attention to. All the other sensei's give a short speech of gratitude for welcoming us to their dojo, blah, blah, blah. Finally, they announce that 'the time has come for introduction'. The girls from the host dojo go first.

"My name's Lisa and I'm sixteen. I train with the _katana_." The taller of the two says. We don't mention our color belts; this a second-degree black belt contest. She also looks to be the more serious of the two. The other one speaks up.

"My name's Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz. I'm sixteen, and I have recently mastered the _nun chucks_, despite how bulky they are." She smiles at us. I smile back, barley suppressing a laugh. Her teammate looks embarrassed.

"Excuse my sister. She's not very serious." Lisa apologizes for her. They must be twins. They move us along to two more girls from a dojo in Manhattan called the _Ninja's Shadow_.

"I'm Catherine, I'm sixteen too. I train with daggers, oh, sorry, twin _sai_." A girl who looks, and quite frankly sounds, very hot-blooded.

"My name's Valentine and I rock the _tessen__(11)_." Catherine's companion said. "And I'm eighteen."

Last but not least, another New York dojo called _Traditional Martial Arts_ is introduced.

"I'm Manny. I use the _manriki__(12)_. I'm eighteen."

He's really, really short. I mean, seriously, this guy needs divine intervention! Or a late growth spurt.

"And I'm John. The _chigiriki _is my weapon of choice. I'm seventeen." Catherine glares jealously at Manny's skyscraper of a partner. Manny and John are complete height opposites. The sensei's give another speech on good sportsmanship, fairness, friendly competition, ect. I do some quick math and guess that we've been in the dojo for about an hour, including the speeches. To close, we bow. Except, I'm no longer bowing. I'm on the floor and someone's on top of me making it hard to breath. I push up, only to be push back down.

"Sorry, girlie. I'm not done with you yet." I think its Valentine holding me down, but the way she speaks it could be Catherine. I barely manage to push her off of me and get up to do a quick survey of the fight before me. It was Valentine, Catherine's on the floor yelling (and kicking) up a storm at her captor. I almost feel bad for…Jake! I can hardly believe it! I keep scanning the room and find Master Lea holding Liz down. Both of them are traitors! Two more people knock me down after my few seconds of standing up, but not before I see Lisa fighting off her sensei and Catherine's. I twist my head so I can see what's going on while wiggling enough to make it very hard for John and Manny to tie me up. They try for my feet, and almost sprain my ankle trying to get me to stop struggling. I don't.

Lisa gets knocked off her feet but she keeps fighting from the ground as they topple on top of her. She rolls out from under the sensei's weight. As she gets up, her sensei throws a punch that catches her in the jaw. She falls, and they start struggling again.

"Stop, Lisa! They'll only hurt you more!"

But Lisa doesn't listen to her sister. Manny and John manage to finish tying me up and go to help Lisa's opponents. Soon she is tied up like everyone else. No space in between our hands behind our backs, and just enough between our feet so we can barely walk normally without tripping. Jake escorts me to our van. Valentine seems to be taking pleasure in half dragging Catherine to the van, unable to scream because of the gags they fitted us with. Catherine has resorted to making muffled threats through her gag. After we're all loaded up, they attempt to rev the engine, but it again will not start. I never thought I'd be happy about its horrible engine before. We hear a thump from the side of the van, but can't see out the windows from the floor. It sounds like someone was thrown against the van during a fight. Which would ultimately mean that…someone came to rescue us! Yes! But just as hope begins to form, our van starts and swerves away. My immature hope topples, as the people trying to rescue us are only faint yells now. I bang my head on the floor in frustration. So close to escaping, and yet so far.

We drive straight for a while, and I'm guessing we got in a minor traffic jam, judging from the horns going off in all directions. I listen hard for any clue as to who might've tried to rescue us. I only hear little snitches of whispered conversations. Things like,

"Were those turtles?"

"…came from the sewers…"

"…so quickly…" And one particularly loud sentence,

"Could those be Yoshi's students? The one's Master Shr- uh, sensei always talks about destroying?" So these people must be enemies with the people who attempted to help us. But what was that bit about turtles?

Finally, after about twenty minutes, we pull up in front of a large building. The dingy sign reads, 'Nature's Lab'.

"What do you plan on doing in there?" I ask. But it comes out more like:

"Wdsj ds yik psjd oon daoim in tjdija?" Manny laughs and I glare at him, trying to remind him of his size. They remove my gag just enough so I can speak. After I repeat my question, Jake says this:

"You are the official subjects for an important experiment." Excuse me? I wish I can make myself think that their kidding, but their ice-cold eyes tell me that they are dead serious about experimenting on us. John and Manny escort me into the building, and the deeper we go more afraid I get. I would personally keep the most valuable and/or expensive experiments in the hardest to reach places. I barely start to hope that maybe, just maybe, the people who tried to rescue us might've caught up to us during the traffic jam, but I tramp any hope that can possibly disappoint me. One more turn and we're pushed inside a room with four slender cages with drains. The cages trigger absolute panic, and I forget to think. I. Am. Terrified. I'm completely losing my train of rational thought.

"Take out their gags; I want to hear their screams." Valentine smirks, and with an authorizing nod of Master Lea's head, takes off Catherine's gag.

"Why did you use us? This seems planned." Catherine, or Cathy, spits immediately. "Geez, Valentine, loosen up! I'm not going anywhere." Cathy attempts to sit down, only to have another sensei help drag her into a cage. Cathy's got a point. She was the only one taken from her dojo, same as me. Both of the Dragon girls were taken, though. There's no pattern except that certain people were taken. Or which ever four failed to defend themselves. How many people knew of the experiment? Jake, Valentine and Lea, obviously, but who else?

After we're all behind bars, Lea starts spouting orders.

"All of you come with me. We don't know how many there could be. I'm not taking chances with those snobby scientists."

"I thought they were helping us." Jake stated. Lea doesn't even turn her head.

"I don't trust them. Who knows what they could have up their sleeves? Now let's go!" After rallying her troops, Lea and her army leave to take out the scientists who have what she wants, I guess. I glance at the others, who seem pretty dejected. Except for Liz who has resorted to-stretching? She hits head in the middle of her backbend.

"Oww!" Liz moans.

"What are you doing, Liz?" Lisa is as bewildered us. Liz finally pulls a _butterfly sword_from her boot. We gape at her.

"What?" She asks innocently as she cuts her bonds.

"You were supposed to come unarmed!" Lisa points out.

"I'm _never_ unarmed, you know that." Liz gives Lisa a weird look.

"Who cares? Pass that thing down already!" Cathy says, excited. Liz nods and passes it down to Lisa, Lisa to me, and me to Cathy. We're all free, but I hardly notice as I pick the lock. All I'm armed with is a bobby pin and a brain, which, given time, can pick this lock. Only, I don't _have_ time. Every time I almost have it, the pin falls out, I turn it the wrong way, or the pin gets stuck in the gears. I'm about to get it once more when we hear footsteps. I hurry the best I can, but to no ado. We failed to escape. Liz stops trying to bash the lock, Cathy stops trying to bend the bars, and Lisa gives up slipping through the bars. Our captors have caught us red-handed, right in the middle of an escape attempt. Cathy holds the sword behind her back and pretends to be absolutely crushed. Even though I just met her, I can't believe they buy her act.

"How did you cut the ropes? They were secure!" Lea is steamed, like she had everything planned and fool-proof, and something going wrong should be impossible. I feel pretty good right now, and I start to grin. Cathy slowly takes out the _butterfly sword_ from behind her back. I kill my smile before attracts any attention. I sneak a side-glance at Cathy before turning my gaze to Lisa, who is currently being interrogated. Cathy's preparing to throw the sword (probably at the fire alarm), and Lisa's doing a great job making the story of how we got our bonds cut and who might've helped vague. Mostly. I almost laugh because she's actually managed to make it seem as though the people who tried to save us at the dojo managed to make it here cut our bonds and went off to try and stop the experiment a few seconds ago using the window. To keep Lea from seeing my half-hidden smile, I turn toward Cathy long enough to know that she's definitely NOT planning on throwing it at the fire alarm. She's aiming for Valentine.

My smile disintegrates as Cathy throws the deadly projectile. Any sound that could've come out sticks in my throat, something that I'm not entirely used to, being the 'annoying' younger sibling. I let out the breath I didn't know I didn't know I was holding when it whizzes past her shoulder creating a hole in her shirt. Valentine looks like she's battling between anger, terror, and an impossibly small smidge of awe. She decides on anger.

"Why you little-!"

Valentine starts toward Cathy, only to be held back by her sensei. Glaring, she steps back. Cathy glares back.

Lea nods to Jake, and he starts toward Liz's cage. He points to Manny saying,

"Go to the second cage." Or to me. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a canister of glowing goo. Should I be worried? Tossing it to Manny he says, "Here." He does the same with John and Valentine, John to the third cage (Lisa) and Valentine to fourth (Cathy).

"Open the latches." Jake orders, and standing on his tip-toes, opens a hole in the top of Liz's cage, just big enough for the average hand to fit through. The others follow in suit. They're probably testing some kind of chemical on humans, when directly touched by the looks of it. They could probably just inject it into our circulatory system, but this could be some kind of destructive chemical, or maybe it only works when poured directly onto skin. Maybe it's just more fun to watch it that way.

"Pour in the mutagen." Jake orders in a steely cold voice.

As soon as I get over my shock, I press my body as far away from the hole as possible. Are they seriously going to _mutate_ us?

"You got to be joking." Liz exclaims, her back pressed against bars so hard it must've made an impression. Jake shakes his head, not really enjoying this, but not regretting it either. Is he being paid to do this?

Manny keeps his eyes on Jake, until Jake nods at him. Manny nods back and opens his canister. Realizing that he is _way _to short, he grabs a step stool. When he climbs up, he barely reaches the opening. I smirk at him. He smirks back.

"At least _I'm_ not going to be a hideous freak." He snaps.

"At least _I_ wasn't born one." I shoot back. He scowls, I glare.

As he starts to dribble the mutagen into the cage, I press away from the slow-moving goop. But the cage is too confined; I won't be able to avoid it for much longer.

Suddenly, I see the goo sling forward, and onto my ankle. At I don't feel anything happening, then it hits me. A fiery pain starting it my leg and working its way up. I scream in absolute pain, and as my ankle collapses I fall into the rest of the glop. It touches my shin and knees first. Then the stuff soaks through my pants, starting cold then turning into an inferno. My skin stretches past breaking point, my clothes rip, and I have an extreme case of growing pain in my every thing. My fingers are forced together, and my nose feels like its being smashed. After I finally stop burning, my back painfully bloats and hardens, leaving me numb, save the massive throbbing throughout my body and a migraine. Most of the mutagen has slowly drained out of the cage, leaving only a few stray spots that I'm careful to avoid.

I can't bring myself to look down at my legs, so I lift my hands instead. I gasp. I have an overall total of three fingers, three on each hand. I have no fingernails, and my skin is _green_**. **I start breathing harder as I look down at where my shirt should be, only to find a shell. I look at my legs, finding them green just like the rest of me, and I only have three toes on each foot. I feel my face, only to find that I have no hair, ears, or nose! Then how come I can still smell? And hear? I must have internal ears; I'll know more after I figure out what animal I am. I look at my companions. It looks like we all suffered the same mutation:

I gasp. In a hoarse voice I yell,

"We're all g-giant…turtles!"


	2. Explanations

**(Lisa's POV)**

**(takes place during season two)**

**This takes place after Tiger Claw joins the Shedder. Enjoy! **

I'm a turtle, a giant turtle! My sister is a giant turtle. And I couldn't help her. Guilt changes to anger- anger at whoever did this. When I find the person responsible for this, I will personally wring his or her neck. Multiple people? I guess I can share a little.

I try to get up, but I guess my muscles haven't caught up yet. I scream in frustration, continuing my attempts to get up. On my third try, I finally succeed. I start pounding the bars, demanding that they let us out. My demands are met with laughter.

"You are not in good place to make commands, honey. And even if you weren't behind bars, you couldn't beat the eight of us as humans. What makes you think you can beat us as newly mutated turtles?" I glare at John. I'm about to make a witty comeback, but I'm interrupted by a giant _**BANG**_! I do my best to peer over John's shoulder, but he's too tall for me to see anything other the back of the Mary's sensei's head. She turns, revealing a scowl.

"All senseis with me." The other sensei's step forward. "You others stay with the experiment." She says pointing at our supposed competitors.

"Hai." They answer. They leave, and we listen to the sounds of battle. Someone unwanted must've shown up. I wonder if it's the people from the dojo…?

"So how's it feel to be a freak?"

Valentine mocks Catherine in particular, likes she's been doing all night. It looks kinda like what a girl from my old class did to me. I wonder…

"Catherine's better than you, isn't she?", I ask Valentine. Her face turns red faster than you can say 'Will you be my sweetheart'.

"No! I'm the best in my class! No one can beat me!", She almost yells at me. I definitely hit a soft spot. Cathy snorts.

"Yeah, except me. Bet that's why you agreed to this. _I'd_ be out of the way.", Cathy spits. Valentine is going to pop. Unfortunately, her fireworks are interrupted. Several –ninjas?- run into the room. Even though our captors are armed and skilled, there is safety in numbers. Three times the amount of ninjas are in this room than ninjas-in-training. I try to get out of my cage again, (failing again) and so do my companions. Mary attempts to pick the lock, Cathy tries to bash through anything that can possibly be broken, as does Liz.

"Yes! I got it!" Mary whoops next to me. She pushes open the cage door and unlocks ours. Finally free! Somewhat. The ninjas have just finished off John, Manny, Jake, and Valentine. Or should I say, they finished off Jake. The others fell almost as soon as the fight began. I look around the room, scowling a tiny bit. I guess they didn't think we'd want revenge so soon.

"Hey, I wanted to kick Valentine's butt!" Cathy complained. I think about joining her, but I decide against it. They meant well.

"Our apologies." A girl ninja mocks. Then she looks at Mary. "We didn't expect you to be able to get out." She says it with a question in her voice. Mary shrugs and shows her the bobby pin. She nods.

"We should get going. The others are starting to come to." The girl is obviously the leader of the group. She isn't dressed in the baggy black pajamas like everyone else. She's wearing a flexible black jumpsuit with armor over it. She seems comfortable with us being turtles. Almost like she's used to it... I don't completely trust her and her group, but we don't have much of a choice. As we follow Ninja Girl quickly and quietly, I'm surprised we didn't hear more of the fight. There are people everywhere, some of which are our rescuers. Except…, I see several metal arms, heads, and chests with holes in the middle through-out the room. What the heck happened here? We run outside where a van waits for us, the driver motioning us inside. Not knowing what else to do, my companions and I follow his instructions. When the door shuts, the driver swerves away. Everyone gets seated on the highway, but there are no seat belts in this van. Ninjas; go figure. This is crazy!

"Okay, what the heck? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful and everything, but you acted like you knew what we are. Who are you?" I fired at Ninja Girl. She takes a deep breath.

"Right. My names Karai, and I'm the second- sorry, third- in-command leader of the Foot clan. We knew about their experiment, yes, but we were unable to stop it." Karai pauses. I'm about to ask more questions, but she holds up her hand. "Let's skip the questions. I'll tell you everything I know about your attackers. They are known as the Turtles, and, very similarly to you, they are trained in the art of ninjutsu. Except they are not, well, not completely human. They are giant turtles, like you. Their sensei is a giant rat that they call Master Splinter.

We know Splinter as Hamato Yoshi, my father's arch-enemy. My father…we'll get to that later. We have accurate drawings of the Turtles and Splinter at head quarters. Their names are Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. Again, we have pictures at HQ, I'll show you who is who there. As for why I didn't freak out, I work with a lot of mutants." Karai takes a breather. She looks at us, silently asking if she missed any thing.

"You missed a lot of things, but you can explain them later. Let's start with this: why are we going to your HQ?" Cathy asks.

"We're going to help learn how to use your new forms. Also, HQ is the only place to get information about the Turtles with your current appearance." Karai waves off the question like it's nothing. I scowl at her with Mary and Cathy. "Plus we can give you weapons." She finishes. Cathy drops her glare. Looking at one another, we nod.

"Well, when you put it that way…" Liz's sentence drifts. -

**(This is a little brief on what happens in the next few months at headquarters.)**

When we get to Foot HQ, we take the Foot soldier oath. Karai explained this to us on the way. In order for Master Shredder to be able to officially 'trust' us with information on the Turtles, we must become his loyal subjects. Mary almost backed out, but where exactly would she live? How would she get food and protection? Or, what really caught her, information? She really didn't have much of an option.

As soon as Cathy heard 'give you weapons', she was in. She wanted to use the chigiriki, but she's a little rusty and the Foot didn't have time to train us. So we all got the weapons that the traitor senseis gave us. Liz is happy as long as she had friends, which she found quickly in a soldier named Danny and the girl who's helping us gear up. Her name is Louise. I think Louise likes Danny, but I should probably keep my assumptions to myself.

After Louise helped us gear up we had these on: Cloth elbow and knee pads, foot and hand wraps, holders for our weapons, a belt for sherkins, blinding powder, smoke bombs, etc., bandanas, and, obviously, weapons.

Our bandanas are done up fancy; my baby blue bandana is in a single braid, Liz has two sunset orange braid loops down her back –the same way she did it when she was human-, Cathy's scarlet mask tails are flipped into a puffy ponytail type thing, and Mary is fitted with a loose violet twist. The bandanas all have really wide tails, so they were cut-able and contorted into some faintly human hairdo.

When we're done with our make-over, Danny is given the task of helping us practice our martial art in our new shells. It's harder than it sounds. The shells we have now are definitely less flexible than skin. According to Mary we don't technically have skin anymore. We have scales. It all feels the same though, excusing the slight roughness of our scales.

A few months later we can move normally, and we have a daily routine; our condition is almost bearable. But Liz is so sad. We were reported missing almost four months ago, and she wants so badly to explain to mom and dad what happened. She wants to reassure her friends at school too, but we have to stay hidden.

Cathy, on the other hand, won't leave the training room. She keeps throwing sherkins, tetsu, and fuki-ya darts at pictures of the barbaric looking Turtles. They hardly look like turtles. Actually, I'm a little curious on how they learned the art of ninjutsu; they hardly look smart enough to use a fork!

Mary's been quiet lately. I didn't know her that well before, but I know enough now to be suspicious of her silence. She's been studying a lot, trying to find out as much as she possibly can on the Turtles. Yesterday, she told me she didn't trust the Shredder. She said that she found some Foot security footage of a giant turtle with a red bandana and twin sai kicking some stuff around on nearby roof tops. This does raise questions, but the turtle was vandalizing rooftops, so even if the Foot exaggerated the Turtles appearances, if this is one of them, they must be telling the truth about their nature. That was the last time I saw her that day.

I don't know what to think about the Shredder. I like the people in his organization, but I've only met him once, and even then he was all business. We took our oaths and got out of his 'throne room' as Liz likes to call it.

The Turtles? I hate them. I've found enough about them in the past four months to know more or less how they operate. They beat up the Foot for just standing there, and they go out nightly to try and find someone or something to fight. Oh, I can't wait to meet them.


	3. On a Hunt

**Okay, I had 71 views last time I checked and only ONE of you reviewed. Thanks JustineElla2. Hope you like chapter 3 of 'Deception', I'm going to try to update at least every Saturday or more. Please R&R. Enjoy!**

(Cathy's POV)

I can't wait to maim – no, kill – the Turtles. They mutated me! They tore me away from me away from my family. I pound the targets with assorted flying weapons thinking of my idiot brother. A few weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated to send him away on a sleep over or birthday party. Now? I'd give anything to see him and my parents again. But they'd never recognize me. It's an exaggeration to say that I look different than the last time we saw each other. I'm going to make the Turtles' deaths very painful for that.

I throw a knife at Leonardo. I'll kill him first, he's the leader. I throw a tetsu at Splinter. No, him first, he organized the mutation. I toss a shurkin toward Donatello. He made the serum, he should go first. I can't decide who deserves the honor. One of those three for sure…Raphael receives a fuki-ya dart to the head. Him, he looks like the tough guy of the pack. I stab Michelangelo with a shurkin. It would weaken them most to lose their beloved little brother first wouldn't it? I don't know. Do they even care about each other?

"Arrrrrgh!" I scream aloud. I fight the urge to cry, but it's so hard. I can hardly take this anymore. I've lost my family, my humanity, and my rights as a human. I'm so tired. I probably should stop training before I kill myself. Then I won't be able to kill the Turtles. Anger boils in my chest as I think about how I've spent my time at the Foot's HQ.

I think only time I've left the dojo lately is to eat; and only occasionally. I've found a not-so-comfortable bed on the dojo floor on the certain days that I train myself into the ground. Not to mention how many wraps I go through a week from spending so much time at the punching bag. I'm_ so_ angry. I've been this way for six months, and I don't think I'll change soon. If someone isn't training me, then I train myself. Getting up, I continue my mental rant.

I'll kill Leonardo first. _**THWAK! **_No, Splinter. _**BAM! **_Maybe Donatello? _**CRACK! **_I barely register the broken target as I send a tetsu through Raphael's heart. _**THUNK! **_Michelangelo-

"Catherine." I turn around to look at Lisa. Nobody ever uses my full name. What's her problem? "I don't think you can continue your rampage anymore. Wanna go out on patrol with Danny?" Lisa asks. I give her a funny look while saying,

"Why can't I continue my _routine_?" Lisa looks at me funny back.

"Uhh, you killed the Donatello target."

"I did?" I glance in its direction. "Oops."

"You coming or not?"

"I guess I don't have anything better to do."

"Come on let's go before they leave with out us!" We race to the roof-top to meet for patrol. Everyone else is already there, splitting up into groups. Liz smiles and waves us over.

"Hey, Danny, could we be a group? If we find the Turtles we'll want them all to ourselves." Liz smiles evilly and cracks her knuckles. Lisa and I join her. Danny fidgets a little, then launches into his compromise.

"If we find the Turtles, we'll call you. If you guys split up-"

"Danny, you can call us if we're a group." Mary points out.

"Yeah, but you four have too much pride to call for help if needed."

"Why would we need to call for help?"

"Because they are _good_. The pictures don't tell the whole story."

"Please, Danny, for tonight?" Danny fidgets more. In moment of weakness he consents.

"Fine. But don't let the pictures fool you. They are extremely good at ninjutsu. Be careful. You have smoke bombs; use them if needed." I roll my eyes.

"We get it! They're better than the pics suggest!" Liz exclaims.

"Chill, Danny. We'll be fine." I try to reassure him. Not saying that I succeeded.

"Yeah, we can handle them!" Liz whoops.

"Shh!" Danny scolds. This time Liz rolls her eyes.

"We'll be careful. Catch ya later Danny!" Lisa says. She turns to us. "Let's catch us some Turtles!" She smiles wickedly. Cheering, we run across the Foot's roof top, quieting when we reach the next. I have already thought this over in my head, but for months I couldn't figure out where the heck four giant _things_ would hang out, or where they would take their nightly patrols. Mary suggested the crime scene, but none of us are really ready to go back there. Maybe the sewers? That's where Karai says they live, but the sewers are humongous. It'd take weeks to scout the whole place. The roof tops are just as big, but we can see over them. Guess we'll just have to check everywhere.

Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and jump. Man, patrol is boring. How long have we been out? We left around ten, and Time Square says…10:10. Oh, goody. This is going to take forever. Run, run, run, and jump. Run, run, run, and _squeak_. I twist my head in the direction of the sound. It came from the shadows. I creep towards the offending sound. _Squawk! _

"Ahh!" I squirm away from the pigeon that flew in my face. I think my expression might be stuck in a permanent glare I do it so often.

"Hold up, did a _pigeon _just scare the oh-so-tough _Catherine_?" Liz laughs. I glare at her, kicking myself for not just getting another Donatello target.

"Come on, let's find the freaking Turtles." I grumble. I jump the alley gap, glancing down a little. I see a manhole cover in an empty alley. Maybe we should try the sewers. But then again…the Turtles are on nightly patrol, so they won't be back in the sewers yet. I sigh. Can't anything be easy?

One hour goes by with no action. Bored, we start to do different kinds of flips over the alleys. Another half hour ticks off the clock. Nothing happens.

"This is why I don't do patrol. There is no guaranteed action!" I complain to Lisa.

"The Foot runs into the Turtles almost nightly. Or, at least, whenever they do patrol. Sometimes the Foot takes a break, so maybe the Turtles are taking a break." Lisa says half-heartedly.

"You don't believe that do you?" I ask. Lisa shakes her head.

"Not really. Every now and then the Turtles don't show up, but every time they do, they seem to be on the other side of town." Lisa frowns thoughtfully. "I don't think Danny wants us to run into the Turtles. I can't figure out why, though." I'm about to reply, when I'm interrupted by a scream.

"Help me!" A feminine voice shouts. Her scream is followed by a moan. I stop dead in my tracks.

"We have to help her." I say, remembering that night at the _Ninjutsu Dragon_. I shiver with the thought. The scream's coming from a few roof tops over, but it should be easy enough to get to. I start hopping over; no one follows me.

"What are you guys waiting for? Come on, she needs help!" I shout without stopping or even turning around.

"Danny said never to reveal ourselves to humans. It's been hard not to help, but…" Lisa starts. My mental jaw drops. This is _so _not the Lisa I know.

"'Danny says!' Whatever! I'm going to help her!" I say and jump into the alley.

I take a quick survey of the situation and throw a few shurkins at the three gangsters holding up a teenage girl. I make quick work of the three, and walk over to the girl, staying in the shadows that I had been operating in. She has a black eye and a few cuts, but she should be fine. I look at the gang members. They look almost worse than the girl, so she must have been able to fight back for a few minutes. Beside one of the gang members I see her purse and a black fan. I walk over to pick them up, when I hear her talk. She's been looking at my outline while I moved around – not screaming -, and that in itself is surprising. Talking to me? Amazing.

"Raph? What are you doing on this side of town? Everyone else is by the Kraang headquarters." I freeze, still looking at the fan I picked up. A closer look reveals a sharp metal edge. It's a tessen.

"Who's Raph? What in the world are Kraang, and why do you have a tessen?" I ask her, holding up the metal fan. She stiffens and stands. But before she can say anything, Lisa calls.

"Cathy! Get back up here! What's going on?" I curse under my breath.

"Just give me a minute!" I call back up. I look at the girl and whisper,

"Will you wait for me or freak out and run?" The girl sits down indicating that she's willing to wait. She knows something.

"Lisa!" I say when I get to the roof.

"What were you thinking?" Lisa lectures me. "How could you put-"

"Lisa, listen to me. When I was down there, she talked to me. That girl thought I'm some guy – mutant – named Raph. She said everyone else is at Kraang headquarters on the other side of town. And she has a tessen." Lisa stares at me for a minute.

"What the heck are Kraang?" She asks. I gesture toward the alley.

"Want to find out?" I need her to say yes. I really need her to say yes.

"There's a human willing to talk to us? Are you kidding? Let's go!" Liz jumps into the alley, Mary following her. I look at Lisa and she sighs.

"Let's catch up to them." She says. I smile and jump down. After I land I hear the tell-tale rattle of fire escapes indicating Lisa's arrival. Without stepping into the light I ask,

"Do you know any other mutants?" I don't say it threateningly; just curiously. The girl stands up again, this time I notice her blazing red hair. She crosses her arms.

"Maybe. Who are you?" The girl seems to stare right through me with her bright blue eyes. Lisa sighs.

"I knew it was too easy. Come on, Cathy, let's go. We can find them on our own." Lisa says tartly.

"But Lisa we could find them so much easier if we just knew a little-" Lisa cuts me off with a harsh whisper.  
"The Shredder isn't exactly a nice person. We can't tell anyone anything." The red-head's eyes narrowed. She lungs for her tessen and assumes fighting stance.

"You're with the Shredder? Then shouldn't you know about other mutants?" She says with sour look on her face.

"Of course we know about other mutants! We wanted to talk to your friends to see if they knew anything about the Turtles! If he looks like me, then they probably mutated him!" I burst, accidently making myself visible. She gasps.

"You think they mutated you?" She shakes her head. "The Foot didn't tell you the whole story." She waits for our answer.

"What do mean?" Mary asks suspiciously.

"I mean they _lied_." She said matter-of-factly.

"No, the Foot wouldn't do that. They helped us. They saved us. Who knows what Splinter would have done to us!" Red-head blinks after Liz's burst.

"He would have helped you. Given you a place to stay, care for your needs, and possibly even training."

"The Foot did all that and more! The only thing we don't have there is our humanity." Liz is on the brink of tears.

"Sure, but Splinter would have accepted you into his family, if you were comfortable with it."

"The Foot did!" Red-head raises her eyebrows.

"They did? Or did you swear allegiance to the Shredder?"

Liz opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.

"You talk like you personally know Splinter. Do you?" Mary interrogates Red-head. She stands straighter, dropping her fighting stance.

"He's a second father to me." Her voice breaks a little. She knows the Turtles? She's like family to the Turtles? And I helped her? I un-sheath my sai.

"Where are the Turtles? We have some unfinished business." I growl. Red-head reassumes fighting stance.

"Never." I about to make a terrifying threat (not that I'd live up to it) when her phone starts to ring. And, go figure, she had already picked up her purse. She face-palms and looks at the screen.

"Hello?" She says into her turtle shell shaped phone.

"_Where are you April?"_ A teenage boy's slightly muffled voice comes back through.

"I got a little held up, sorry. I won't make it to training for a couple days. Could you apologize to Sensei me?" For a minute there's only silence.

"_I will. Call me later, kay?" _

"Sure." She answers quietly then hangs up. I tap my foot impatiently.

"So, April. We've heard a lot about you. Would you mind telling us how exactly you ended up on the Foot's 'Most Wanted' list?" Lisa asks.

"They used me for ransom and then sent me to the Kraang. After the Turtles saved me again, I started harassing and spying on the Foot." April shrugs. "And I might have beaten up Karai." Modest, huh?

"Karai has her weak points. Now would you answer the question already?" I'm getting incredibly frustrated. April pretends to think.

"Hm…no." She smirks. "That would be telling." I let out an exasperated sigh. I could wring her neck right now, but then we would lose our best chance at finding the Turtles.

"Would you_ please_ give us a clue?" I ask in the nicest way currently possible.

"I don't think you understand how important these guys are to me. I'm not going to tell you." She smiles a little. "Plus, puzzles are so much funner when you do them yourself."

"Funner isn't a word. You should know that by now. Or did Splinter not teach you English?" Mary snaps. I mentally face-palm. Who teaches English in the middle of an argument? April sighs.

"I go to school! I know that funner isn't a word. Jeez!"

"She's on the Foot's 'Most Wanted' list? I didn't know that."


	4. Questions With Answers

_(April's POV)_

"Ow…"

What hit me? Did Mikey nail me with a water balloon again? No, those hurt a little less. Maybe one of Donnie's mutagen experiments went wrong? Never mind; they definitely end worse.

"Rise and shine, Princess. We have some questions.", a smooth voice with a rough dialogue snaps. Why is it familiar? I look up, only to be temporarily blinded by a bright light.

"So, would you mind telling me who called last night?" The voice says again. Classic interrogation, huh?

"What do you…oh, you again?" My eyes adjust in mid-sentence to see a giant (and reasonably tall) feminine turtle with a scarlet bandana. All my memories of last night come back in a rush. And after what happened last night, I think I vaguely know what gave me my mild concussion. The girl smirks.

"You say that like its unpleasant."

"Would you be offended if I said it is?"

"Not really. Now, I'll repeat the question; who called you last night?" They haven't figured it by now? Geez, the Foot has down graded.

"You didn't go through my phone? I'm genuinely surprised." I earn a nasty look from – Cathy, was it? I'm not sure.

"Of course someone went through your phone! We didn't recognize the nicknames! Or faces for that matter." I put on a sour look.

"They are the only Turtles I know. If you didn't recognize anything, then why am I still here?"

"She's not done yet. And fyi, we did manage to get some information. For instance, we know which part of the sewers they live in now."

Crud! Letting my head fall back, I inwardly groan. I should've told the guys what was going on in that alley! But I might be able to them a little good for all the trouble I've caused them.

"So you know that they live in the east sewers?" I make an attempt to throw her off track.

"They live in the western sewers. Did they tell you something different?" Cathy looks confused and happy at the same time. Confused because what I said doesn't match with what she knows, and happy because I'm angry and miserable. That girl is really ticking me off.

"A little bit! Do you have any idea what you've done? Please tell me you haven't given the address to any of the Foot soldiers!" I lower my voice a little at the end.

"No, not yet. Mary hasn't finished getting everything off of it. Why?" She's toying with me. I hate being toyed with.

"Do you not know how many times they've saved the city?"

"No."

"Let me help you. Wait, I lost count!" Cathy raises an eyebrow ridge.

"And what did they save the city from?"

"Assorted organizations. The Foot and Kraang mainly." I try to wave the question off, but I find my arm – and all my other body parts – strapped to a chair. Cathy looks a little annoyed.

"What. The heck. Are. The Kraang?!"

"The Foot didn't tell you?" Cathy fidgets a little.

"No." Why am I not surprised? She won't believe me if I tell her, but if she finds out what I tell her is true, she may trust me a little. It's worth a shot, right?

"Better get a seat. Okay, the Kraang are aliens from another dimension. They're currently trying to mutate the earth and every one on it, and seeing that they have an unlimited supply of mutagen, it shouldn't be that hard. But they're missing-"

"Do you expect me to believe that?" She cuts me off. She didn't even let me finish before she dissed it!

"No. But I guess after you're fed lies that contradict the facts, the truth is harder to believe."

Cathy steams. Victory!

"Why you little-" She looks ready to strangle me, and she actually might. But I seriously doubt it. Other from being their best shot at information on the Turtles, she's not allowed too. And I (reluctantly) admit, she seems to want to help people. Why else would she have helped me?

"You're awake! Great, I have some questions." Another turtle walks in. She's medium height with a violet bandana.

That's what your friend said. I don't think I need to mention the outcome." I tell her.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised. Catherine has some anger issues." The new turtle says. Cathy shoots her we'll-talk-about-this-later glare.

"Anyway, could you explain the pictures on your phone? Who are the mutants featured?" The new turtle asks. So this must be Mary. I hold back an exasperated sigh; I can use their arrogance to my advantage.

"Just some friends. They call themselves the Turtles. They've saved the city multiple times."

"There are two sets of Turtles?" I shrug off Mary's question.

"Are you sure they aren't the guys you're looking for?"

Mary snorts.

"Please. The difference is staggering."

"And by that you mean…?"

"Cathy, will you please go get a picture for me? Thank you." Mary asks. I hear a few mumbles, but Cathy does what she was asked.

"So, is this like a good cop bad cop thing?" I inquire after Cathy leaves.

"I guess. I'm not as harsh as Cathy, but right now I'm not mad. Now, if you had pictures of the Turtles we're looking for it might be a different story."

"Oh." Just then Cathy walks in with a piece of paper in her hands. She hands it to her friend and sits down. Then they show me the drawing.

"Uh…what are those things? 'Cause they do not look like turtles." I ask, bewildered. I mean really! I expected a little bit of imagination, but this is just wrong.

The thing is drawn similar to a family portrait. But instead of posing, they're snarling. Their features are exaggerated to the point of flat down ugliness. Leo's beak is sharp, like it might cut you, his katana are twisted, and for some reason, his shell is tiny.

Mikey is extremely short, he has no beak because it's covered by his chubby cheeks. But this isn't cute; he looks like he's a mad balloon. His shell is huge and his nun chucks have spikes on the ends.

Donnie is taller than normal, wielding a warped staff topped with a loose fitting blade. He's not muscular like the others, he's stringy, almost like you can take him apart, his features are bland, and (luckily) his shell is normal.

Raph is so big it's a wonder he can stand. It's all muscle, but nonetheless, his shell looks stretched, as does his face, and instead of sai, he has a huge mace swung across his shoulder, complementing his pointed beak.

But it's Master Splinter that makes me sad. His fur is matted, his eyes are red with no pupils, and he's bald in some spots. His teeth are sharp, pointing to the side because of his eerily stooped back. He looks very similar to Casey's description of the Demon Rat. I want to cry and puke at the same time.

The Turtles have white eyes with no pupils and wear ratty bandanas. The only color is in Splinter's eyes and even that is a little dim. They look extremely stupid, like addition-is-hard stupid. Why? I'm not completely sure, but I think they're trying to make them easy to hate and kill. If so, they've succeeded.

"These things wouldn't be able to order pizza, much less mutate somebody." I exclaim. Mikey not ordering pizza. Yeah, that'll happen.

"That's what we thought. But Donatello's the one who perfected the mutagen, Leonardo made the plan, Splinter set it up, and the others carried it out." Cathy shrugs. "That's what we know." I disguise my laugh as a cough. They have no idea how many lies they've been told.

"Can I go now? Obviously we're talking about different Turtles."

"No. Because first off, you're criminal here, and second off Karai wants to question you in private before the Shredder decides what to do with you. Sorry." says May. I moan. Cathy's eyebrow ridges shoot up.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"Yeah, isn't there always something wrong with being captured by your enemies?" I snap.

"Whatever. Karai should be here soon, so I'm going to the dojo." Cathy replies.

"And I thought I had the skills to stay safe…" I mumble. Somehow, I need to get at least one of them to listen to Karai's interrogation. Cathy smirks as se gets up.

"We all have those days." She says.

"Yeah? Well, I bet you don't have the skills either. Unless you can stay undetected by Karai, and I seriously doubt you can." I'm rewarded by a glare. This might work.

"That's _so_ unrelated." Mary mumbles. Maybe I should've lengthened my proposal. But, luckily, Cathy ignores her.

"You really think that? I'll show you undetected!" Cathy leaps up, onto one of the roof beams. She places herself so she's sheltered from sight. Clever. Now she just has to be quiet. Mary shakes her head.

"She can be baited into anything." She says this too quietly to be heard by Cathy, but just barely. "I have to check on the test I ran on your phone. Easiest way to check for tracking devices. I wish I could've asked more questions, but my time is about to run out." She walks out the door, and Karai walks in.

"Long time no see, April." Karai addresses me in a steely voice.

"What do you want?" I growl.

"Relax. We're probably not going to hurt you." Karai laughs.

"Please, I can take torture. But it'll be very hard to keep the world from being mutated if you give me to the Kraang again!"

"We're not working with the Kraang anymore."

"Who would want to work with aliens from Dimension X anyway, right?"

"Shredder doesn't think the Kraang are reliable anymore since the mutagen drop. Now let's get down to business. What are the weaknesses of the Turtles and Splinter?"

"And I'd tell you this because…?"

"Don't test me April. I can do serious damage, as you have found out."

"Okay, first, I recall _winning_ that fight, and second, I can take torture, remember?"

"You got lucky." She growls.

"Sure. Anyway, I noticed that you got some new goons. Why turtles?"

"They're pretty good fighters."

"I got that part. I mean, they look like the Turtles. Why did you give them those bandanas? And why the same weapons?"

"That's none of your business."

"They're even geared the same way. Well, except their pads are thinner I guess."

"I said that it's none of your business. Now answer the question!"

"Naw, I have to leave you hanging there. That was a pretty sick drawing that you guys whipped up. I bet the Shredder himself designed Splinter. Speaking of which, why do you hate Splinter so much?"

"You don't know? I seriously doubt that."

"Splinter's story might be different than yours and I like to listen to both sides." So Karai told the Shredder's version of the story quickly.

"And the Turtles?" I push.

"They work for Splinter."

"Ah. Now I have to ask."

"No more questions. Answer mine!"

"How did you get them so perfectly mutated?"

"As far as they know, Donatello mutated them and we saved them. What's Donatello's weakness?" Karai smirks.

"It's better to know your enemy's strength."

"We know his strength. He's a geek."

"Harsh! He probably has more than one strength."

"I bet he doesn't."

"What about Leo? Wouldn't you want to know the leader's weakness?" Karai rolls her eyes.  
"Please. Leo is the one I fight with the most. I've learned his weakness. He's a goody-goody who will sacrifice himself for people he cares about."

_That'll convince Cathy. _I think to myself.

"How do you know that that isn't his strength?"

"Stop stalling! What is Splinter's weakness?"

"Miwa."

"Miwa? Who's Miwa?"

"Not my secret to tell."

"You know what? Forget you! We'll defeat the Turtles when they come for you!" She says in frustration. She gets up starts toward the door.

"What about your new soldiers? If they see the real Turtles, they won't trust you anymore."

"They're going to be on patrol when the Turtles get here."

"How are you going to control that?"

"You told Leo that you weren't going to make it to training for a few days, didn't you? We'll just call them before they're suspicious of your scarcity." She answers without turning around and leaves. Cathy hops down a few minutes later looking very angry.

"Who was lying?" I ask haughtily. She doesn't answer. Walking out she says,

"Later tonight I'll come for you. I might bring some of the others. We'll grab your stuff and get out. But you have to take me to the Turtles."

"Deal." I answer. She never said I had to take her to the Lair. But how am I going to get Leo to agree to a meeting?

**I forgot to mention this in the last two chapters, but this is not a romance story. It's just friendship. I'm horrible at romance stories, sorry. Please feel free to change it on your profile. I don't really like most romance stories, but I'd love to see how it might turn out. Please R&R, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	5. Meeting the Turtles

**Review, review, review! Any review would be welcome! Also, reviews seem to motivate updating (even if only a few people care about that). Any way, enjoy chapter 5 of **_**Deception, **_**and again, please review. **

_(Liz's POV)_

In my dream, I see four humans sitting in science class. Looking closer, I recognize them as Lisa, Cathy, Mary, and me.

Lisa sits closest to the door, her jet black hair blowing in front of her startling blue eyes. Mary is sitting next to her, brushing her strawberry blond hair out of her emerald green irises. Cathy has her feet propped up on her desk, with a light brown pony tail and a green-blue gaze. And then there's me, falling asleep, my soft black hair braided and looped, designed to keep hair out of my big brown eyes.

I don't know the teacher, but as she drones on, she starts to sound and look a lot like my old science teacher, Mrs. Lott, and goes on forever about turtles. What they eat, where they live, their eggs, stuff like that. I'm about to fall asleep on Cathy when Mrs. Lott says,

"Wake up! I brought some friends to show an example of_ real_ turtles."

She smiles in a way that makes my skin crawl. Suddenly, the door burst open, and Mrs. Lott's 'friends' prowl in carrying canisters of mutagen. We all scream and scramble out of our chairs. Even though there's no use in preparing to fight, we do. Too bad the Turtles and Mrs. Lott have us surrounded. I brace myself for the worst, and that's what I get. Laughing evilly, the five of them drench us in mutagen. The process of the mutation is thankfully skipped, but the effects aren't. We're all in our gear somehow, but that won't help us yet. Hardly able to move, we are temporarily defenseless. Leonardo approaches Lisa and kicks her plastron, hard.

"No! Leave her alone, you monster!" I scream at him. But I can't get up to defend myself or my friends and family. Leonardo smiles again and walks over to me. He starts to kick me instead, ignoring the protests coming from the other girls. He kicks me about five times, with enough force to make it hard to get up. By now we're able to get up, but we can't beat the Turtles. They're too strong, and we're too weak. But just when Raphael is about to deliver Mary's final blow, the windows shatter, making it possible for four more Turtles to jump in. Except, these ones look like the pictures on April's phone.

After a short fight, the new Turtles defeat the other ones, who burst into dust. The new turtle in blue walks over to us.

"Don't worry; we're not going to hurt you. Can we look at your wounds?" He asks. We nod, not having much of a choice. The one in purple comes over and looks at our cuts and bruises. We're all beat up pretty bad, so he is forced to give directions to the others, being especially specific with Orange and Red.

"Mikey! This isn't a game!" Purple says to Orange.

"This needs to be done very carefully, Raph." He says to Red. When they finish patching us up, the new Turtles are about to introduce themselves, but right before they do, I wake up.

_**llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll**_

"Liz! Liz I need to talk to you about something!" Cathy shakes me awake.

"Could it have waited till morning?" I groan.

"No. I need to know something tonight." She says.

"What? More importantly; why?" Cathy ignores my question.

"Imagine that you never knew anything about the Turtles. One night you're being mugged and-"

"I'm a giant turtle. No one would have the guts to mug me."

"Fine, pretend you're human. You're being mugged, but before you are-"

"Am I wearing an awesome outfit?" Cathy looks irritated now. Now we're even.

"_Yes_. Now, before you're mugged, four giant turtles jump down from the roof tops. Imagine that they look like the pictures on April's phone. They save you and leave you to your business. What would you think?"

"Well, if I didn't know anything about them, I'd think that they're pretty cool. Why did you have to ask me tonight, again? I was in the middle of a dream. It was pretty cool, too. You want to hear it?"

"Sure." Cathy sighs.

So I tell her my dream. When I'm done, we think for a minute. I remember reading a text from Purple that mentioned keeping a close eye on Orange and Red while they was in Purple's lab and something from Blue about having trouble leading the rest. I remember Blue being labeled as Leo, Purple as Donnie Boy, Orange as Mikey, and Red as Raph. There were pictures of their weapons on her phone too, but how did I get it in my head that they were nice?

"If the Turtles were like your dream, would you go with me to find them?" Cathy breaks the silence.

"Yeah, I'd love to meet them. Why?" I ask her suspiciously.

"I listened in on Karai and April during interrogation. That _is_ how the Turtles are. I told April I'd go get her tonight as long as she took me and whoever wanted to go with me to the Turtles. Mary's coming, but Lisa didn't think she'd like the Turtles even if they helped her. Are you coming or not?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Um…no."

I think for another minute. What if the Turtles that I dreamt about exist? What if they're good? If they are, will they be willing to help us? And what if they're like the Turtles the Foot taught us about? What if they really are hunting us for fun? What if April manipulated Cathy into thinking that they're nice? What then? Only one way to find out.

"I'll come." Cathy smiles ever so slightly after hearing my answer.

"Great. Grab your gear and meet me on the roof."

"On it."

I gear up quickly, then race up to the roof as quietly as possible. On the roof, Cathy, Mary, and April are in a huddle waiting for me. I join the huddle.

"What's up?" I ask.

"I just called Leo. He's going to meet me at the roof top on the corner of 5th and Lard at 12:30." April tells me.

"Its 12:06 right now, I just checked. That gives us plenty of time to get there." Mary informs.

"Are we all ready to go?" Cathy asks.

"Yes." We answer together.

"Let's move it." Cathy says. We hop to the next roof top.

_Swoosh!_

I pause.

"Did anyone else hear that?" I ask. They look at me shaking their heads.

"It was probably just a pigeon." Cathy says with distaste. She's hated pigeons since her last patrol. I laugh mentally at the memory.

"Right. Let's go." I say.

Fifteen minutes later, we're half-way there. April's phone starts ringing like crazy. She looks at the screen and puts on an I'm-not-surprised face and answers the phone.

"Hey, Donnie. What's up?" She says casually.

"_Where are you?!"_ The slightly muffled voice says not so casually. April looks worried now.

"Don't I still have a few minutes?"

"_Yeah, but someone got here early! _**Clash!**"

"The Kraang?"

"_No, another giant turtle! _**Crash!**_ She is really intent on killing us!"_ April pales and my stomach twists into a thousand knots. Lisa is fighting the Turtles?

"Oh, no. Try not to hurt her!"

"_I can't hurt her! I have no openings! _**Crack!**_"_

"Then tell the others not to hurt her!"

"_I'll tell them, but we can only stall for so long. _**Bam!**_ How do you plan on calming her down? _

"_**I'm right here, you know!**__" _Lisa yells at Donnie.

"Tell him to put his phone on speaker!" I say. April looks at me and nods.

"Put your phone on speaker."

"_Okay. Why?"_

"We'll find out in a minute. Is your speaker on?"

"_Yes. _**Clang!**_ Please hurry!" _April hands me her phone. She makes a few hand motions, saying that we should keep moving while I talked to my sister. So we start running, and, in my case, talking.

"Lisa! It's me, Liz. Stop fighting them!"

"_**Liz? Where are you? I thought you'd be here by now. Just a minute.**_**Blam!**_**" **_

"Lisa, stop! They're the good guys!"

"_**The good guys mutated us? I don't find that entirely convincing."**_

"_For the last time, we did_ not_ mutate you! _**Thunk!**_" _An irritated voice says.

"Lisa, they're telling the truth! Even Karai admitted it!"

"_You're with the Foot?!" _The same voice yells.

"_**Uh-huh. Karai admitting to a lie? Even if she did lie, she would never admit it." **_Lisa says, ignoring the mutant yelling at her.

"_Oh, she lies. Trust me, she lies." _A different guy is talking now, his attitude completely different from the other guy's.

"Please, Lisa, stop."

"_**Could you hold on a second?"**_ I hear some more fighting sounds from the other end of the connection. Oh, so now she's ignoring _me_.

"_**Don't move or you'll only have three in your pack!" **_I hear Lisa snarl. And I'm guessing that's why.

"_Why you little-!"_ The irritated voice yells again. I stop running all together and shriek into the phone.

"No, Lisa! Don't do this! This goes against everything you believed, or ever taught me."

"_**How so?"**_

"Remember when we were eleven? We were in the middle of practice and I messed up. A girl started making fun of me, even though she could barely break a board. I got mad. Wasn't used to being made fun of, and I wanted revenge. But you told me that if I took revenge, I'd be just as guilty as her. Karma would get her. If I took revenge, I'd get it right back." Everything was kinda silent while I told my story. I don't like silence unless we're on a mission. I laugh a little. "Remember how I didn't listen? I blew a blunt dart at her leg and went back to training. The next time she saw you, she thought it was me and whacked you with a bokken. When you got home, you were steaming. I got grounded for a week. I got my revenge, but I wasn't allowed on any type of technology outside of school for a week." More silence.

"Doesn't anyone realize that I'm trying to start a conversation here?"

_**lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll**_

_(Leo's POV)_

I'm confused, disoriented, and embarrassed. Embarrassed because I'm pinned down and I have swords criss-crossing my neck, disoriented from the fight (if you call me dodging her a fight) down here, and confused because the so-called Lisa just went from threatening me to giggling. She pulls it together quickly and removes her swords. She clears her throat.

"Right. Sorry about…um…well…sorry I attacked you. It won't happen again." She says awkwardly, staring at her feet with her hands behind her back.

"Yeah. So how do you guys know April?" I inquire. Seriously, when did April get acquainted with the Foot?

"Before I tell you, it wasn't my idea." Lisa puts up her hands defensively. I guess it wasn't something good. What else can I expect from the Foot?

"What happened?" Donnie narrows his eyes suspiciously. He's "When did you guys meet? April normally tells us when she meets new mutants, especially ones that we evidently mutated." Lisa rubs the back of her neck and shuffles her feet.

"Sorry about that. Long story short; we were kidnapped and mutated. The Foot took us in, helped us get used to our new forms and told us about our supposed kidnappers." She looks at her hands. "Karai said that the people who over-powered us were agents of Splinter and the Turtles. They believed that the Turtles were bored and needed entertainment." She shrugs. "We were told we were being hunted. That kinda set me off." I'm beginning to understand why she almost killed me.

"That sounds like Karai." Raph says and crosses his arms.

"Yeah. Is it just me, or has she been more vicious lately?" I ask.

"It might be something to do with all your Shredder-isn't-your-real-father talk." Raph shrugs. I glare at him.

"Now is not the best time, Raph." I say pointedly. I swear, he does not have a filter.

"How you met April?" Donnie pushes impatiently.

"Okay, let's see. We were on patrol, when someone screamed for help. We weren't supposed to show ourselves, but Cathy didn't listen. Looking back, it's probably a good thing she was so hard-headed. Cathy followed the voice and found April. After Cathy took down the three thugs that April had already hurt, she found April's tessen. April had thought Cathy was Raph, and started talking about a Kraang warehouse. Cathy was curious, so she brought us down. We found out who she was and took her prisoner; she's on the Foot's most wanted list. I didn't interrogate her myself, but from what I can gather, she tricked Cathy into eavesdropping on her and Karai where Cathy found out the truth. Then she went to us to figure out if we'd open up to the possibility that you guys looked completely different as well as acted different. Don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't think it was possible, so they didn't invite me along. But Cathy woke me up in the middle of the night asking about the Turtles. It made me suspicious, and I followed them, figured what they were planning, got address and made a bee-line here." She looks everywhere but our eyes. "You guys know the rest." Mikey whistles.

"And that's only half your story. Being mutants is _so_ complicated." He shakes his head.

"Guys, I see April coming with the others. They'll be here in a minute." Donnie says, looking behind him. Sure enough, there were three figures leaping quickly across roofs, and a fourth lagging a little behind. A moment later, three more girl turtles arrive, geared like us. I cross my arms. April has a lot of explaining to do.


	6. Revealations

_(Leo's POV) _

I kneel next to Lisa (I'm pretty sure that's her name), trying to get her to look at me so I can ask her some more questions. Raph is holding his tough guy look, but it was getting me no where so I dropped it. Personally, I like results.

She's taking this pretty hard, and is extremely embarrassed at her actions. She won't say anything but 'Sorry', and even though her intention is good, it's not getting us anywhere. I try to comfort her. It's what I would want if I was in her position.

"It's fine." I say, laughing a little. "I understand. We all make mistakes."

I know; why would I do this? After all, she was going to kill me. I should hate her; that's what a normal teenager would do, right? So…why am I trying to comfort her? Why am I treating her like I would myself?

Well, first, I'm _not_ a normal teen, anyone can tell you. Second, she's confused, not sure what's going on. She thought we mutated her and her sister, and now that she, hopefully, knows it's not true, she doesn't know what to believe. And third, in order for either of us to get answers, she needs to be calm. Solution? Calm her down so she can get on with her life.

"Yeah! Like that one time when Leo tried to fix the toaster? I think there are still burn marks on the wall!" Mikey laughs before Lisa can apologize again.

"What? You told me that it over-heated!" Donnie complains.

"That was a year ago! Does it matter?" I complain back.

"Yes." Donnie scoffs.

"Oh, come on! Mikey breaks way more stuff than I do! He mutated himself, remember?" Getting up, I face my brothers.

Mikey continues laughing.

"Oh, remember the time he tripped himself with Donnie's staff? Good thing we were training!"

"Excuse me, but didn't you almost stab yourself with my swords?" I retort, crossing my arms.

"And remember when you thought you were saving Karai and it turned out to be a bomb? Shredder had you totally fooled!"

"You were the one to announce that we had Karai!"

"But who's the leader? I was misled!" Mikey laughs again. I face-palm.

"You know what? Forget it." I turn back to Lisa, who's looking at me quizzically, and sit back down.

"Brothers. They never leave me alone about that toaster." I smile at her, and she finally smiles back a little.

I hear soft footsteps on the other side of the roof. I turn my head and find three more feminine ninja turtles and a slightly tired April.

"Lisa!" One of the shorter girls runs over to Lisa and wraps her in a hug. She's wearing an orange mask and has nunchucku strapped to her sides. I stand up and join my brothers.

"Hey, Liz." Lisa replies.

"Don't ever do that again. Ever." Liz unwraps and looks at Lisa.

"I won't, trust me."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good." Liz stands and turns to us. "Sorry about that. My name's Elizabeth, but most people call me Liz." Lisa stands with her sister.

"This is Catherine and Mary. You already know who I am." Lisa says, motioning to the others.

Catherine is tall, almost as tall as Donnie, and wears a scarlet mask. Mary is shorter, about as tall as me and wears a violet mask. And they all wear the same gear as…us. What?

"I'm Leonardo. This is Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello." I introduce the team, disregarding my questions for now. There will be time for that later. I glance at April, who had been oddly quiet. Donnie follows my gaze.

"Hey April. Is something wrong?" Donnie asks. He sounds concerned about her being quiet, but hey, this is Donnie we're talking about.

"No. I'm fine. But there is something you guys need to see." She pulls out her T-Phone. After a minute of searching, she finds whatever she was looking for. Walking over to us, she says,

"Let me introduce you to the Turtles from Foot HQ."

"Please tell me that you made this up!" I demand, of course being answered with a small shake of her head. Really?! My shell looks like it got shrunk in the dryer or something!

"I am not that tall! But maybe a staff with knots wouldn't break as often…" Donnie muses.

"Remind me to lay off the weights." Raph says, unable to look away from the too strong version of him.

"Hm…I look kinda like a sumo wrestler!" Mikey laughs. Again.

"Glad your happy Mikey." I mutter. I look back at the girls, shaking my head at the memory of me slouching next to Master Splinter.

"What's the story?" I ask.

They glance at one another, silently debating on who will spill. Catherine pushes Liz forward.

"Why," Liz pouts, "Does it always have to be me?"

"Because you're good at keeping people light." Cathy glances at us. "Err, no offense."

"None taken." I reply. After a minute, Catherine nudges Liz.

"Right. Well, it started one night about six months ago. We all had been invited to the tournament that year. Me and Lisa on one team, Mary and another boy, and Cathy with another girl made up three of the teams. The other was two boys. After the senseis finished their speeches, we started to bow, and then we were tackled by one person or another. All of the senseis and other students were in on it. They tied us up, threw us in a van, dragged us to a lab and mutated us. The Foot then 'saved' us and told us of the supposed guilty party. That would be the…other Turtles that April showed you. That's all I got." Liz finished-and started- rather quickly. I think for a minute. About six months ago we tried to sabotage a Foot operation, but the van slipped away during the fight. I wonder…

"Where did this happen?" Raph asks, apparently coming to the same conclusion.

"The lab? That would be-"

"No, the dojo." Raph cuts Lisa off.

"Uh…_The Ninjutsu Dragon_." Lisa amends. "My old dojo." I look at my brothers.

"What's going on?" I hear Cathy ask suspiciously.

"How do I explain this?" I wonder aloud.

"We were there that night." Mikey blurts.

"That works, I guess." I mutter.

….

Sorry for the long wait, I'm having a hard time with this fic. And sorry about the less-than-perfect writing. I'm better writing in the perspective of my OCs. Anyway, please review!


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